The Falklands War V2.1: a CivII scenario by Javier Arriaga (November 2000)

(NOTE: this scenario requires "Fantastic Worlds" to play)

	This scenario recreates the last war of the British Empire: the Falklands War.

	The Falklands Islands (Islas Malvinas, in Spanish) are a little archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean. Historically, they are Argentinean lands, but there is a very strange conflict about British rights acquired before Argentina's independence, caused by a war between Spain and England in the XVIII century. After the independence, Argentina demanded the control of the islands, but years passed and the Falklands continued under British rule.

	In 1982, the military rule of General Galtieri had many stability problems. Galtieri decided to make a propagandistic deed recovering the islands. The Argentinian army, and specially Argentinian air force, weren't a despicable menace for the United Kingdom. They invaded the Falklands in April with only a few losses and established there waiting for British response, hoping the Great Britain wouldn't be able to maintain a great scale war for recovering a little archipelago like that.

	But British Premier, Margaret Thatcher, revealed intransigent. Under an unbelievable patriotism wave, she formed a Task Force with Royal Navy, Royal Air Force and British Army forces. In May, the Task Force arrived to Falklands. Argentinean Navy and Air forces tried to defend the islands, but the British naval superiority was really huge. In spite of the very effective exocet missiles carried and launched by the Argentinean aircrafts, which caused quite damage to the British fleet, the British troops disembarked and fought against Argentinean forces.

	The professional British troops, with SAS and paratrooper units, defeated easily the poorly armed and trained Argentinean infantry; in June, the Union Jack flamed in the Falklands again. Today, it still flames.

	It's difficult to say which side had right. But it's quite sure both countries lost more during the war than the island's value.

	Margaret Thatcher gained a lot of popularity. She continued governing and firing miners for a long time.

	General Galtieri, who tried with the war to secure his political position, lost the power because the humiliating defeat.

	This is a very short scenario: a race against time. It will end in April 1983 (12 turns). Though, it is very easy, so please play it in deity level (too easy anyway).

	Playing with the Argentinians, to invade the Falklands should be too simple. Then you must retain as more cities as possible until the end. Use your exocets wisely, they could save your ass.

	With the British, don't try to retain the islands on 1st turn. You have almost no chance to achieve it... unless you cheat. Your Task Force is near, so you have to concentrate in re-conquering the Falklands. Use your destroyers, cruisers and missile frigates to distract the enemy exocets and take the sea control ("Rule the waves"). Protect your carriers and troop transports; if the enemy sinks them (and the exocets are very effective), you will be lost. Though, if you preserve them, the triumph will be yours. Don't try to invade Buenos Aires or Punta Arenas, it's not important actually.

	In April 1983, the international community will force a cease fire. This will be the end of the game.

	This is an objectives-system scenario. Each Falklands city is an Objective. The protagonist of the objectives is the Argentinean player. To achieve a decisive victory, you must own the three Falklands cities; remember that a destroyed city don't give any points.

	This was my first scenario for CivII that I  created with "Fantastic Worlds", so excuse my mistakes (I'm quite sure there are a lot). In version 2.0, I tried to expand the game with a greater map, two new cities (Port Darwin and Punta Arenas) and more units at each side. The British aerial units, when AI-controlled, have the uncomfortable tendency to fly until they are out of fuel, so I made them to appear as event to prevent it.

	In this version 2.1, there are only minor changes; the biggest fault in version 2.0 were the partisans: when the Argentinians captured a city, there appeared a lot of arg. infantery units on the british side as partisans. I must confess I wasn't able to prevent this event, so I made a little oddjob: now, there appear civilian units; they are easy to destroy ("capture") and they give money when destroyed ("captured"). I also made a little change to avoid players to cheat; of course, there is always a way... I also changed the fortification icons.

	I found my information about Falklands War in many Web Sites, mainly in:
		www.malvinas.com 				*Page of Argentinean war veterans about Falklands War.
		www.thenews.co.uk/news/falklands/menu.htm	*British Page (you know, I looked for the two versions of the story)

	I have copied the military units icons from any scenarios I've found in the web, mainly from "Cold War X", by Jason Molthan. 

	The Cathedral icon comes from "Time of the thunder: Age of Philip II", by Jess Balsinde. The "Argentinian Government" icon was created by me. The argentinian and british flags come from the flags collection created by Michael D. Raney. The fortification icons come from "Red Front", by Captain Nemo.

	The title.gif image shows the "Santsima Trinidad", the Argentinian Flagship for the Falklands invasion (extracted from www.malvinas.com).

	Special thanks to J. Balsinde, who helped me to know the "Fantastic Worlds" and answered me some technical questions.

	Any comments, suggestions, congratulations and (sigh) insults, can be sent to.... 

	jasev@aluesi.us.es

	If you are crazy enough to play another of my scenarios, all of them (at this moment, just four) are on my web page:

	http://www.geocities.com/jasev
